


Status Uncertain

by whoneedsapublisher



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 16:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19705336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoneedsapublisher/pseuds/whoneedsapublisher
Summary: Riko's life was changing a lot recently. And some of those changes weren't as clear as she would have liked.





	Status Uncertain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raithfyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raithfyre/gifts).



> A (very) belated birthday gift for Josh!

Riko found herself in an uncertain position.

It was something of a transitionary period in her life. After moving all the way from Tokyo, leaving all her friends and classmates behind, she’d attended a new school in Uchiura, only for it to shut down. Now, on top of moving to _another_ new school, although this time retaining most of her classmates, she was getting used to owning a dog, something she would have never done not to long ago. Between all of that and becoming an idol, another thing she would have thought was impossible, the ground seemed like it was shifting beneath her, all her previous certainties falling away.

In all of this, one rock of stability were the friends she’d made in Uchiura, people she was already much closer to than the people she’d known back in Tokyo. And yet, in that group of friends lay the most perilous uncertainty of them all.

Her relationship with Chika.

Riko had confessed to Chika last year. That was supposed to be it, wasn’t it? In all the romance manga Riko read, that was the climax, the end of the story. The girl got up her courage to confess, and either they were rejected or they succeeded, and then she either dated the person or moved on.

But when Riko confessed, it didn’t seem to change anything at all. Chika had smiled at her and they’d gone back to the room to try and get at least _some_ sleep before Dia woke them up to work the next day, and then… everything had just been the same.

Had Riko not been clear enough? After all, You had said she loved Riko, too, and Riko was pretty sure that she hadn’t meant it romantically. Did Chika think that Riko had just been grateful for Chika telling her to go to her piano concert, and hadn’t meant that she was _in_ love with her?

But she _had_ meant that she was in love with Chika.

“Riko? You okay there?”

Riko blinked, startled out of her thoughts, and You gave her an odd look.

“I’m fine,” Riko said. Right. Now was no time to be spacing out. She could worry about this when she was alone at home, not when they were all going out for a meal. “Is everyone ready to order?”

“Of course!” Yohane said, striking a pose in her seat. “There is only one dish on this human menu sufficient for the dark cravings of a fallen angel.” 

“Is it the kid’s meal?” Hanamaru said slyly, eliciting an irritated squawk from Yohane as she rushed to deny it.

Ruby giggled, but she nodded when Riko glanced over at her.

“What about you, Riko? What are you ordering?” Chika asked, leaning over and resting her face on Riko’s shoulder to look at her menu, as if by looking at Riko’s menu instead of her own she’d discover some new insight.

Riko flushed at her sudden closeness.

This was the other problem with figuring out what was going on with Chika. Chika had always been pretty physically affectionate with people, but lately it seemed like she’d turned it up a notch with Riko. She was always in Riko’s personal space, draping herself over her shoulders as she whined about something or leaning against her as they walked. It wasn’t as if Riko didn’t like it, but given her confusion about Chika’s feelings, it was a little confusing.

“Jeez, Chika, you’re going to fall out of your chair,” You said, her voice a mixture of amusement, fondness, and exasperation. Chika was undeterred.

“I’m curious, though!” Chika said, as if this somehow explained what she was doing. “Riko always has such cool tastes. Just like someone from Tokyo!”

“You have such a weird view of people from Tokyo,” Riko said, sighing.

“But you do have cool tastes!” Chika protested.

Riko couldn’t help but smile a little at that, especially after her pretty ordinary choice of what to eat didn’t dampen Chika’s spirits. Chika’s enthusiasm was as infectious as always. Honestly, it was that enthusiasm and determination that had been what finally convinced her to join Aquors, even more than Chika helping her out. It was one thing to repay a favour, but Chika had really made Riko believe that Aquors could really be something.

It was also part of why Riko had fallen in love with her. No matter how often Chika insisted she was “normal”, she really wasn’t. Riko had always thought it was funny that she talked about wanting to shine, when to Riko’s eyes, she was always shining, a bright sun bursting with energy.

“So, to what occasion do we owe the privilege of this meeting? You went to the effort of summoning a fallen angel to your gathering, after all. What grand designs do you have for the day?” Yohane asked.

“I was a little curious myself, actually…” You said.

“You were just glad to have an excuse for us to all wear our old uniforms again…” Riko said, sighing.

You grinned sheepishly, but she didn’t deny it.

“Wellllllll…” Chika said, and Riko looked over at her curiously. Frankly, she hadn’t thought it was anything too unusual. Sure, going out to dinner together wasn’t what they normally did, but the six of them met up fairly often, and she’d figured the “wear your old uniform” thing was just something You had done to feed her cosplay obsession. Was there actually something going on? “I did… kind of have something to say.”

“Something to say?” You asked curiously. That was even more surprising. Usually Chika would have talked to You about anything she had planned. What kind of surprise announcement was she making that You was hearing it for the first time as well?

Chika took a deep breath. Then, to Riko’s surprise, she suddenly reached under the table and took Riko’s hand.

This was… new. Chika may have been physically affectionate with her, but holding hands like this was… strangely intimate. Did Chika even realize what that seemed like to Riko? Or was she was just reaching for the closest person to reassure her, and it would have been You if Riko had been sitting on the other side of the table?

“So…” Chika said, a little awkwardly. “This is kind of something from last year, but with everything that happened with Aquors and the school and all it didn’t seem like the right time, you know? So I’ve been waiting until everything settled down to say anything.”

Riko stared at her, caught completely off guard. She wouldn’t have ever guessed that there was something on Chika’s mind during that time other than Aquors and the school. Her determination had seemed so single minded, so all-consuming, that Riko could barely believe that there had been anything else she’d been thinking about.

“But, well… me and Riko are going out,” Chika said, smiling sheepishly.

For a moment, no one said anything. The noise of the restaurant continued around them, but at there table, there was a stunned silence, eight wide pairs of eyes on Chika.

Riko was the one who spoke first.

“We _are_?!” she exclaimed.

“What?” Chika said, turning to her in confusion. “Of course we are. We’ve gone on like, a dozen dates, right?”

Riko stared back at her open mouthed. “I didn’t-” she spluttered. “I thought we were just hanging out! Half the times we’ve gone places together we ended up hanging out with You or your sister! You never said they were dates!”

“What? What else would you call it when your girlfriend takes you out somewhere?” Chika asked.

“Girlf- You never even responded to my confession!”

“Eh?” Chika paused for a second, thinking. “...Wait.”

Riko just continued to stare at her, utterly dumbfounded as Chika rubbed her chin and frowned, trying to remember.

“I… must have said something at some point…” she said hesitantly. “...Right?”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Yohane said, her expression flat. “You can’t be serious.”

“That’s Chika alright…” You said, sighing.

“Chika…” Hanamaru looked at Chika with a distinctly disappointed look on her face.

“You never even tried to kiss me! After a _year_!” Riko said. “We’ve barely even held hands!”

“I thought you were just shy!” Chika protested. “I didn’t want to pressure you.”

Riko sighed and buried her head in her hands.

All that worrying. All that contemplation about how she should act, about what Chika could be feeling, and it turned out that Chika had just _forgotten_ _to tell her that she liked her back_. Unbelievable. No, it wasn’t even unbelievable, that was the worst part. She could _completely_ believe it.

“Um,” Chika said sheepishly. “Sorry, Riko…”

“Chika, Chika, Chika… You don’t understand at all,” Yohane said with a low chuckle. Riko glanced up to see her dramatically putting her hand in front of her face, a self-assured smirk on her face. “Lily isn’t looking for your cheap words. If you wish to atone for your sins, you must take action! Engrave your contract of romance on her lips with a lover’s kiss!”

“Eh?” Chika said.

“Eh?!” Riko spluttered.

“I don’t think-” You said, but it was too late. Chika had already turned to Riko with a determined look on her face, putting her hands firmly on Riko’s shoulders and turning Riko to face her.

“I’m really sorry, Riko!” Chika said. “I love you! Please go out with me for real!”

And then she kissed her.

It wasn’t exactly the circumstances Riko had been hoping for. It was, in fact, kind of absurd, and more than a little embarrassing, considering that it was in front of their friends and in public on top of that. But when Chika’s lips touched her, she found it a little hard to care about any of that. One way or another, her confession had finally been successful. The love that she’d been carefully sheltering, afraid that it would wilt and die, had bloomed.

So maybe she could forgive a little absentmindedness and a bit of bad timing.

Just this once.

**Author's Note:**

> Art is once again by noelclover on tumblr, who did a wonderful job as always!


End file.
